External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[Bear Paws]

Helo all,
The tech told me that would not work as the recordings on the external hard drive would be tied to the 622 that I currently have and would not play on a new receiver. I said that I thought that didn't sound right as I know that some of you folks on this forum have multiple receivers in your home and you use the same drive on the different receivers. Before I spend the money on the enabling fee, I just wanted to know if what the tech told me is accurate. Thanks for the help

They lie... Their wrong.....Its linked to the account. You could upgrade to a 722 and have no problem..
Just did it. I got a 500 GB WD home edition at Costco. 109.99. 10 hours later everything was transfered and swapped out the 622 and I watched a couple archived movies on the new 622 from the external... . Slicker than greased owl crap on a peeled oak limb.

What I did notice was the capacity LED gauge does not work on the xternal hooked to the 622/722. THats one of the reasons I got the Home edition rather than the Essential model.. No information in the box so I went to the Western site. It needs a driver install to make it function.. That I assume would be in the computer if thats what its attached to.. I gues I'm SOL . I can watch the light zip back and forth like the lights on the Night Rider Car....welcome to knight rider online Kitt...

 

[mnevar]

Recordings go bad?

I've had my WD MyBook Essential 500G drive since the feature was first offered. Not may troubles. Recently, I've had trouble viewing older recordings. When I view it from the EHD, I get a brief flash (just the title bar) of the channel I was currently tuned to. Then the screen in blank. No sound. No nothing. The only control that has any effect is to view live tv. After that the EHD is inaccessible unless I reboot. It says I'm currently viewing something on the drive. unplugging the drive does not help. I have to reboot or wait until the "show" is complete. If I try to restore the recording to the receiver, I get an error that there is something wrong with the recording. Attempts to access the drive after that say the other TV is using the EHD. About the only common thing in these recordings is they are all pretty old (several months). Others that are the same age are unaffected. All the recordings are movies recorded from HBO, Cinemax, and HD Net. No PPV.

I should also add that I had previously been able to view these recordings from the EHD, so they are not bad transfers.

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[GRExpert]

Do most people view recordings right from the EHD or do you transfer it back to your receiver then view. When I attempt to view from the EHD, I get frequent freezes and have to push View Live TV then go back into the recording. If I transfer to receiver I have no problems.

 

[charlesrshell]

Do most people view recordings right from the EHD or do you transfer it back to your receiver then view. When I attempt to view from the EHD, I get frequent freezes and have to push View Live TV then go back into the recording. If I transfer to receiver I have no problems.

I watch right from the EHD. Got two of them and don't have any freeze ups.

 

[charlesrshell]

I've had my WD MyBook Essential 500G drive since the feature was first offered. Not may troubles. Recently, I've had trouble viewing older recordings. When I view it from the EHD, I get a brief flash (just the title bar) of the channel I was currently tuned to. Then the screen in blank. No sound. No nothing. The only control that has any effect is to view live tv. After that the EHD is inaccessible unless I reboot. It says I'm currently viewing something on the drive. unplugging the drive does not help. I have to reboot or wait until the "show" is complete. If I try to restore the recording to the receiver, I get an error that there is something wrong with the recording. Attempts to access the drive after that say the other TV is using the EHD. About the only common thing in these recordings is they are all pretty old (several months). Others that are the same age are unaffected. All the recordings are movies recorded from HBO, Cinemax, and HD Net. No PPV.

I should also add that I had previously been able to view these recordings from the EHD, so they are not bad transfers.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I have two WD 500gs connected to two different 722s and have no problem watching old recordings. As I type I am watching an old Peter Gabriel concert (VOOM channel) that I recorded last year sometime.

 

[120inna55]

...I've had trouble viewing older recordings. When I view it from the EHD, I get a brief flash (just the title bar) of the channel I was currently tuned to. Then the screen in blank. No sound. No nothing. The only control that has any effect is to view live tv. After that the EHD is inaccessible unless I reboot. It says I'm currently viewing something on the drive. unplugging the drive does not help. I have to reboot or wait until the "show" is complete. If I try to restore the recording to the receiver, I get an error that there is something wrong with the recording. Attempts to access the drive after that say the other TV is using the EHD. About the only common thing in these recordings is they are all pretty old (several months). Others that are the same age are unaffected...I should also add that I had previously been able to view these recordings from the EHD, so they are not bad transfers.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Yes, I had the same problem in my MyBook 750. It was older events. With the input from people in this thread, I decided they'd become corrupt. I ultimately had to reformat the EHD (with my laptop) and start over (obviously losing all my recordings). I was also told to expect this to happen again. I really don't know if it's a DISH problem or a WD problem. Since the reformat, I've not noticed any problems, but I don't trust it. I only put HD movies that I have a slight interest in seeing someday, but nothing like a story arc that would cause 'grief' if lost.

 

[brad1138]

Free Agent Pro 750

Does any one know if they ever fixed the problem with the sleep timer on Free Agent Pro drives? If you don't turn off the sleep time it crashes. E* said they were going to fix it at least a year ago.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[harshness]

Does any one know if they ever fixed the problem with the sleep timer on Free Agent Pro drives?

The drives now wake up fine.

 

[brad1138]

The drives now wake up fine.

Thank you, I am glad to hear that. Now do I risk hooking it to my PC to change the settings back to "Sleep timer - ON". Hope I don't loose my content.

Brad

 

[cognitive77]

I have two 500GB WD Essentials. When I power one of them on now, I get a continuous blinking/flashing green light (power button on front). Can't access anything on the drive and WD only offers technical support to users with Windows OS.

Any experience with this here?

 

[JEFFinINDY]

The drives now wake up fine.

Mine seemed to wake up OK, but after the nightly receiver reboot things didn't work. The list of recordings comes up blank. I turned off the sleep mode and my FreeAgent 750 is working fine.

Did you have to do anything else to get it to work correctly with sleep?

 

[guruka]

So from reading it seems that the WD is the way to go, anyone disagree?

Im not looking to get the cheapest, just the drive with the least amount of issues. The WD 500 My Book is $99 shipped now and Im sure if I looked around the 750 is not too much more.

If it's the "Dish certified" version it ought to be okay. The regular version is not. I used a WD MyBook 750 and it had LOTS of issues, so I do not recommend it at all. The USB interface seems to have problems with the Dish receivers. I switched to a BlackX dock and a seagate 750 GB drive and have not had a single issue since.

.....G

 

[rdstill]

Can someone help me? I just bought a WD Essential My Book 750 gig model wd7500h1u-oo and i can not get it to work with the 722 model receiver i have. im also a new dish subscriber as of about a week ago. this external hard drive thing was kind of the main selling point for me, but so far it's been a bummer. i called Dish tech suppt, and they activated the feature, had me do all kinds of unplugging of power cables and USB cables etc, and could not get it to work .... they claimed it was a problem with the particular brand of EHD but i see many people on this forum use it all the time so i wanted to see if someone on here could tell me a trick to get it to work?

 

[120inna55]

...Can someone help me?...i can not get it to work with the 722 model receiver i have...

We'll be happy to help. Be very specific as to what it's doing. First things first, did the receiver format the drive?

 

[rdstill]

We'll be happy to help. Be very specific as to what it's doing. First things first, did the receiver format the drive?

no, that's the funny thing. the instructions i printed from the dish network website site said i should get a pop up asking me if i want to re-format the drive, i say yes, then the receiver should re-boot.

none of this happened. the receiver did recognize that i plugged in the drive, because a pop up came up asking me if i would like to manage recordings, then it just kicks me to the "multimedia" screen , then when i click on send to device, it just get the message asking me to call to activate.

 

[120inna55]

no, that's the funny thing. the instructions i printed from the dish network website site said i should get a pop up asking me if i want to re-format the drive, i say yes, then the receiver should re-boot.

none of this happened. the receiver did recognize that i plugged in the drive, because a pop up came up asking me if i would like to manage recordings, then it just kicks me to the "multimedia" screen , then when i click on send to device, it just get the message asking me to call to activate.

Ahhh...then I would guess that the drive is formatted, but DISH, despite what they've told you, haven't sent the message to your receiver. I assume you only have one ViP receiver? If so, call DISH back, tell them your receiver is asking for an authorization and then insist they re-hit your receiver.

 

[rdstill]

Ahhh...then I would guess that the drive is formatted, but DISH, despite what they've told you, haven't sent the message to your receiver. I assume you only have one ViP receiver? If so, call DISH back, tell them your receiver is asking for an authorization and then insist they re-hit your receiver.

one more question, i see that best buy carries a external hard drive specifically for DVRs. here's the link
Western Digital - My DVR Expander 500GB External Hard Drive - WDG1S5000VN

does anyone reading this thread know anything about this ? would this be better than what i have? this is the one i got:

Western Digital - My Book Essential Edition 750GB External Hard Drive - WDH1U7500N

 

[charlesrshell]

one more question, i see that best buy carries a external hard drive specifically for DVRs. here's the link
Western Digital - My DVR Expander 500GB External Hard Drive - WDG1S5000VN

does anyone reading this thread know anything about this ? would this be better than what i have? this is the one i got:

Western Digital - My Book Essential Edition 750GB External Hard Drive - WDH1U7500N

I am not sure on the 750GB, but I have a My DVR Expander 500GB for about six months now and it has worked perfect so far.

 

[120inna55]

one more question, i see that best buy carries a external hard drive specifically for DVRs. here's the link
Western Digital - My DVR Expander 500GB External Hard Drive - WDG1S5000VN

does anyone reading this thread know anything about this ? would this be better than what i have? this is the one i got:

Western Digital - My Book Essential Edition 750GB External Hard Drive - WDH1U7500N

The DVR Expander to which you're referring has an eSATA interface (not USB). The model that's allegedly specifically for DISH Network DVR's is WDH1S5000N, which is apparently missing from Best Buy's website inventory. Here's the comparison on WD's site: My DVR Expander Overview

That said, I doubt there's much difference between the EHD you have and the one that's "certified" for DISH Network DVR's. I would imagine the "DVR Expander" moniker is just a marketing ploy. However, should you actually have a problem with the EHD, DISH may feel more inclined to just tell you that it's unsupported whereas if you had the DISH certified one, you may have more grounds for appeal. Given the history of CSR's, though, this would likely be a laborious, prolonged process, that you'd probably give-up up on anyway.

Bottom line, if I'd already purchased a WD 500 GB EHD that wasn't labeled a DVR Expander, I certainly wouldn't return it just to pick up the DISH certified DVR Expander. But if I hadn't made the purchase yet, and I had the option of picking up either one, then I'd obviously get the DVR Expander (price being equal).

I have a WD MyBook Essential 750 GB. After a few months of use, programs started to become corrupt on the drive and I was unable to access them. I moved off the few that were still accessible and then, using Windows, reformatted the drive, then reconnected to my ViP receiver and reformatted it and have since had no problems, although I don't really trust it. As I said earlier, I don't put anything on the EHD that would be somewhat disruptive if I lost it. (So don't put story arc's that I want to see later). I just use it to put HD movies on it that I haven't seen before and have an interest in seeing in the future. Or I put HD movies on it that I like to re-watch but could probably find easily again should the drive fail.

My problem with corrupt files on the EHD was several DISH software versions ago. It may have been fixed by now. Of course the problem could have been with the EHD itself, but I'll never know. Prior to my initial problem, I used to put things on the drive, delete from the drive, and move things back and forth. Concerned that moving files around on the drive with abandon could have caused the corruption, I now use more discretion and try not to do a lot of that.

 

[jending]

Im new I have a 160gb hd from a 522 and would like to watch the movies on a 722 is that possible thanks John